Creating activity templates using Stata

We have determined that the best way to analyze our 159 counties is to use activity templates in IMPLAN Pro, as the analysis for each county is in a similar format. I am analyzing and compiling the data to be used as activities in Stata software and can create a spreadsheet for each county using the program. It appears that the existing templates available are in .xls format (97-2003 Excel), but are there any other requirements that I have need to include besides the basic and obvious ones in appearance? Any other tips for creating multiple templates?

Comments

First, I should say there are some limitations with the activity template that we are working on resolving but aren't quite there yet. Would you mind providing a bit of information on what activities you'll be building? The primary issue is the software not registering the template correctly whenever using retail sectors.

Additionally, do you have event values for Industry Sales for all the industries you'll be using? If so, you can still use the template, but must not apply any margins (retail should always be set to no). If you are not using Industry Sales, your Event Year must equal the model year (still NO MARGINS).

I am assuming you're looking to take one Event value applied to each county and want IMPLAN to estimate the rest based on the county? Or do you know all Event Values for the activities (Industry Sales, Emp, EC and PI)? Or do you want the Event Values for one region to be applied to all the regions (this would be appropriate in the case of a mock MRIO)?

We have event values (from our own proprietary data) for Industry Change, but luckily no retail margins involved. We use the information to conduct a contribution study - but the complication is that we are doing it for 159 counties so it gets quite time consuming to cut and paste all of our data into your template, then customize each county model, and then run each one. So, we were looking for some time savings in being able to generate through Stata all of the activites. Let the code do the work! I can send you an example, but it appears that there is no way to attach a document to this comment thread.

It sounds like what you're doing should work just fine in that case as long as your event year and model year are equal.

Another great time-saving technique is using Batch Model Building. I'm not sure if you're familiar with this but it allows you to complete the batch template and then the software will build out every single county back to back so you aren't doing that manually. Then you can simply open them and go from there. If you aren't familiar with this, I'd be happy to send instructions.

You are correct as well about the attachments but feel free to email them to me directly at Support@IMPLAN.com if you'd like for me to review them.